My beautiful Byron,

Today Facebook posted a reminder picture of where I was today 6 years ago.

I was in Scotland, at St Andrews. In this picture of me in St Andrews, standing on the famous Swilcan Bridge, which spans the Swilcan Burn between the first and eighteenth fairways on the Old Course with the Royal and Ancient Golf club in the background, there is someone missing. Phyllis took that picture, after my request for a picture to show you.

Here’s is what happened six years ago this month.
In July of 2014, one year had passed since fathers day of 2013, when Charlotte Adler took you from my home in Riverbank and demanded £100,000 before she would allow you to see me.
I had retained a family law solicitor, Graham Coy, whom Adler had referred to as ‘ a total idiot’, but at the time he was all the legal help I had, so I kept paying him to arrange visitation for you to be with me. It was your legal right and it was mine.

How hard could it be. Right?
All Adler had to do is agree to weekend visits and you would be back in your old room at my house. We would have had regular visitation from the get go. That was the advice from the lawyer. So – I kept paying bills and he kept writing letters to get Adler to agree to let you spend, even one night in your old home.
Adler replied to every request with the same answer. Pay me £100,000, and you can see Byron as much as you want. The crappy lawyer Graham Coy kept writing stupid letters that Adler replied to by forcing him to right back, generating never ending bills for me.
I ended up seeing you for four nights in that year before the Scotland trip. I paid that family law solicitor, Graham Coy, £40,000, for which I saw you in total four nights.
£10,000 a night is what Adler and British family law made me pay to see you four times in that first year. Starting with your address. They wouldn’t even tell me where you were until I had paid over £5,000 in legal costs to ‘force’ Adler to tell me the address where you were so I could send letters. That is how the legal costs began to ended up over £500,000.

So – in 2014 your first summer Holiday was coming up, and after all the court expenses, you were, by court order, allowed to see me for summer holidays 2014.
For how much of the summer holiday?
I had requested that you leave shortly after the start of the holiday and return at the end. In other words, your whole summer holiday. And Adler started a long list of letters to the lawyer, arguing for less time. Unless I paid her a six figure sum that is. In that case, you could spend as much time with me as I chose.
In the end, she agreed to 3 weeks with me. Her reason for not agreeing more, seeing as we had seen each other for just 4 nights in the past year, was that she ‘didn’t want you out of the country for longer than 3 weeks.’ Although I had agreed to fly to collect you and to take you back. You were then 5.

So Phyllis came up with an offer to solve this impasse. We would travel to the UK, and spend the first two weeks there with you, before flying back to California. Adler’s objection to you being out of the country for longer than two weeks would be addressed and we would get to spend 5 weeks together instead of 3. Our objective was very clearly to spend as much time with you as possible and to work around Adler’s serial objections to any visitation prior to payment of a six figure financial demand.

We booked 2 weeks of fun travel around UK. I wanted to show you Scotland, which is one of my favorite places on Earth. I planned a road trip, driving up the M1, North, stopping in York, and then driving around Scotland to the major points of interest. Then driving back to Heathrow for the flight to California, and then bringing you back to England after 3 weeks there.

Initially, the lawyer confirmed this was going to happen. We would have 5 weeks together. Yay. We booked a schedule of stops for the UK road trip, along with the tickets for you for California.

Shortly before we left, Adler cancelled your opportunity to travel with us in the UK. This is after we had booked the flights and Hotels and car hire and so on. I was disappointed. I had planned a fantastic trip around the best of Scotland and was so looking forward to seeing you.

I am sorry that I didn’t succeed in seeing any more of you than 3 weeks that summer. You should know that Adler objected to you being with me like a rabid dog. Unless she won money, you would not be able to see me.
So, as was her intention from the outset, my legal bill soared, until it went over £500,000 and I could no longer continue. I did learn though that British family law is a deeply flawed institution, where corruption is rife as they protect their ‘job for life’ membership of that institution surviving on arcane statutes, written for a very different time and place, to exploit people at their lowest point; during separation involving child visitation. Eventually the constant drain of legal costs meant I was unable to carry on funding legal efforts for you to see me. And Adler won. We have no contact at all and her legal business is thriving.

But back when this photo was taken, in 2014, I believed I would ‘win’ the right to see you and be a part of your life. After being stay home dad with you for your first four years.

We collected you after the Scotland trip and we flew to California together, where we had the best 3 weeks ever. You fitted in so well in every way that I thought the better option for your education would be to live in California with me and school there. Although I offered Adler either school with me and holiday with her, or vice versa. It was entirely possible for you to have had time with me every year, either during holidays, twice a year, or during terms if you stayed in CA for schooling, traveling back to holiday with Adler, in the event she would be able to take time off her high earning work for a non paying effort like that.

Adler and Amlot never allowed one more visit for you after 2014. During that visit, Adler tape recorded you talking to me. and used that recording, which incidentally was nothing bad, just you asking me ‘Why does mummy have issues with you” and me answering honestly, to stop all Skype chats between you and me.

That was illegal in the state of California. I spoke to a lawyer – and guess what. It is a criminal offense – breach of privacy to record someone in California without them knowing. And then share that information with a third party. Both Adler and Amlot used this information. In California, they broke the law, as lawyers.
How did Adler get away with that one?

The same old way – lies.
Her professional aptitude.
The Court in California served her with these two offenses.
She first agreed to pay the costs of the lawyer to ‘drop charges’. But I didn’t accept. I was hoping that she would respect your right to be with me and agree to some visitation – even if only skype chats.
So, clever lawyer that she is, she lied to the Court in California.
She said they had no jurisdiction – because both the people involved were UK residents and so it should be heard in a UK Court. But at that time, I was no longer a UK resident. My home was in the USA and my status was American resident. Which she knew all too well. Nor was Phyllis a UK resident, who was also affected in this ‘Breach of privacy offense’ because Adler sent a transcript of this recorded conversation to Phyllis. That is a separate offense – disclosing ‘Stolen’ information from a Breach of Privacy offense with a third party. Clearly Phyllis was not a UK resident and the jurisdiction claim was a lie.

But what it meant for me was another round of legal fees to file in California, proving that Adler is a serial liar in Court. That would have required proving that neither Phyllis nor myself were UK residents. That the California court had jurisdiction because the offense happened in California (While you were here and she recorded you taking to me via the iPAD I had given you.)
I decided to not take that offense further. More legal fees. More stress.
Once again, Adler proved, who lies wins.

Her reaction to being ‘caught out’ in this way was to stop you even talking to me on Skype. And since then, after 19 trips to the UK in 2 years to see you, Adler and Amlot made it impossible for me to continue after 16 Feb 2016. Arguing, in writing, over 2 hours of visitation, where I had to pay the legal bill, because of a court order.

I was allowed to see you for 24 hours, after multiple exchanges of date possibilities. I guess they thought I wouldn’t travel for just 24 hours, but I did. And because of my plane times, I had 2 ‘free’ hours where I wanted to spend the with you instead of waiting alone at the airport.
I ended up being made to pay – by Court order of Michele O’Leary – the legal fees’ of Amlot, for arguing over 2 hours of visitation when I had traveled 12,000 miles to spend 24 hours with you.
Why 24 hours?
Because on that occasion she had said “Byron can’t spend the Saturday with Andrew because he has Greek lessons.”
So that left a mark. £500,000 already paid in legal fees. And paying more to argue with a lawyer charging £500 an hour – that I was ordered to pay by another lawyer (Michele O’Leary) just to allow me to see you for two extra hours, after my trip had been reduced to 24 hours because ‘You had to attend Greek lessons’.

I guess – if that was a valid reason for cutting short my visit time with you – ‘Attending Greek lessons‘ then the truth ‘will set Adler free’ from my impression that ‘Greek lessons’ was a typical Adler/Amlot lie intended to obstruct visitation for you.
If in fact Adler prioritized your Greek lessons to such an extraordinary level by now you must be so fluent I guess I could start writing my letters to you in Greek.

One sure way of knowing if Adler was lying in typical Adler legal style when she used ‘Greek lessons’ as a reason to prevent you spending time with me, is if when you read this your Greek is not as advanced as her assurances then imply. If in fact you are not by now a fluent Greek speaker, reader and writer, then there is your evidence of another bald faced lie from a bald faced liar. Another thread in her a web of lies to help you understand why you are not able to see me and why British family law remains accused of corrupt-deceit for nothing more than their handsome payday at the expense of a child’s welfare.

Its summer holiday time now. 2020.
Every year since Adler started blackmailing me for visitation with you I have tried to arrange summer holiday visitation for you. (As well as December holiday visitation.)
But this year is different.
There is clearly no point in writing to Adler or Amlot to request holiday visitation because clearly there is nothing to add to my requests of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019. The facts speak for themselves. All in writing.

One day I hope you will be able to read these words and know you are very much missed and loved and are always able to reach me by whatever means possible (and I know you have been blocked from any contact with any of your Greek friends or family or letters) to let me know when, and I will take care of the rest so you can be with us for as long as you want to be.

Miss you,
love you,
Daddy

Here is the indexed link to the Original Blog pages from which the Book LETTERS TO BYRON is extracted. The book has 25% more content and pictures.
LETTERS TO BYRON in chronological order. The original live blog pages subject to same Terms and conditions:

The first of the LETTERS TO BYRON:  The PILOT
2nd GRAHAM COY
3rd:  TOM AMLOT
4th:  Thanksgiving day
5th: MICHELE O’LEARY. The switch Judge
6th : Raining in California
7th: Music
8th: December Rain
9th: Brexit and Greek war
10th: Winnie the Poo
11th: December kayaking
12th: Family law and Mark Zetin
13th: Xmas day 2018
14th: Maria and Anna
15th: New years eve 2018
16th: Your first smile
17th: Your Uncle GEORGE
18th: The Mighty PACIFIC
19th: WEBSTER and Summer HOLIDAY 2019
20th: Breach of Privacy offense
21st: MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
22nd: Philotimia
23rd: A short note
24th: MUSIC and KINDNESS
25th: Robin Hood
26th: SRA ethical code
27th: NINE YEARS LATER
28th: Valentines day
29th: EVZONES
30th: Rushing
31st: Quick Note
32nd: Johannesburg 2019
33rd: Still in Johannesburg
34th: More Johannesburg
35th: Last Johannesburg for now
36th: Traveling. Upgrade
37th: Spring
38th: Whales
39th: MEXICO
40th: CABO ST LUCAS
41st: 1 April. Wallace’s Birthday
42nd: SANTA BARBARA
43rd: Short letter
44th: PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
45th: KIRA visits
46th: Goodbye uncle Lazaros
47th: Easter Monday
48th: OJAI Tennis
49th: Short letter
50th: PARENTAL ALIENATION FACTS
51st: Cartagena memory
52nd: NEW RECORD
53rd: Last letter to 9 yo
54th: First letter to 10 yo
55th: D Day – 75 years
56th: LA QUINTA
57th: MASON GRADUATES
58th: DESIDERATA
59th: EARTHQUAKE
60th:  Chris and Golf
61st: Chris visits Byron in London
62nd: SUMMERTIME
63rd: PHYLLIS’ LETTER TO BYRON
64th: GUN CRAZY AMERICANS
65th: MISS YOU
66th: SCRUFFY
67th: Mason leaves for college
68th: ART
69th: Day after 911
70th: PAPOU. CALLING CHRIS
71st: Two Women
72nd: ANOTHER YEAR
73rd: PLANNING CALIFORNIA VISIT 2019
74th: KAYAKING WITH DOLPHINS
75th: M and M
76th: HALLOWEEN 2019
77th FINGER EXERCISE
78th: First late letter
89th: MIAMI
90th: Thanksgiving and the SRA
91st: Dentist
92nd: EDUCATION
93rd: Almost Xmas
94th: Boxing day 2019
95th: 2nd January 2020
96th: 9 January 2020. Liars and Thieves
97th: 16 January. Thursday
98th: 23 Jan. Mystery Thursday visit
99th: 30 Jan. Months end
100th: 6 February. 2020. Summer Holiday
101st: 13 February. 2020. Family Law
102nd: 20 February. Dogs
103rd: 27 February. The elderly in the desert
104th: 5 March. James Munbys’ talk on family law. And unilateral judgments
105th:  26 March covid19-what-else
106th: 2nd April. British Family law
107th. 9th April. Good news about Covid
108th: 15 April. 2020. Covid Tzar. A good pair of hands
109th:  23 April: Distance Learning
110th: 30 April. A video Letter. Byron Sundays
111th:  7 May. VE Day
112th:  14th May. History Lesson
113th:  21 May. A family birthday
114th: 28th May. Happy Birthday
115th: 4th June. Riots
116th: 11th June. Guessing
117th: 18th June. More Covid
118th:  25th June. Business open from Lockdown
119th: 2nd July. Writing and Cleaning
120th: 9th July. Six years after Scotland
121st: 23 July. Masked Lockdown
122nd: 30 July. Maybe next year?
…….130th. The one before the end
131st The last letter September 24th